


both so young and foolish

by duckgirlie



Category: Hackers (1995)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 13:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duckgirlie/pseuds/duckgirlie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dade hasn't seen Kate since graduation, when he went to Stanford and she went to MIT because she hated sunshine, or something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	both so young and foolish

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lalejandra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalejandra/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> thanks to becca for some help with historical context, and celli for betaing, and to everyone else who yelled at me about finishing this and not getting distracted.

The sink needs to be fixed, but that isn't Dade's job. And he's told his manager about it fifteen times already, and his manager hasn't done shit, so Dade is up to his elbows in milky water for the third time that day.

He's probably going to stink of milk for the rest of the day, which is perfect.

He's got his eyes on the register when the next customers come in, barely looking up as he takes orders and fills out cups. So he's not expecting the surprised "Dade?" from the next customer in line.

Dade looks up and freezes. Kate Libby was not who he was expecting to see when he woke up this morning. He hasn't seen her since graduation, since he'd gone to Stanford and she'd gone to MIT because she hates California with all the fire that only a born-and-raised New Yorker can muster.

Kate's eyes are sparkling the way they always did when she'd made a new discovery. She turns to the guy she came in with and explains that she knows Dade from high school, before turning back to stare at him.

"Dade Murphy, my god... This is wild."

The other guy has the tiny flicker of recognition that Dade's come to expect in this town, and Dade has to fight back rolling his eyes.

The queue behind Kate is starting to get restless, but he's not expecting Kate to care, and she doesn't. Instead she leans across the till to punch Dade in the shoulder and grins again.

"I didn't know you were still in town."

Dade has to press his thumbnails into his palms so he doesn't react.

"I didn't know you were in town at all."

"Oh yeah, that." Kate grins. "Turns out this really is where it all goes down."

"What happened to 'I'd rather get shit on every day for a year then live in California'?"

Kate covers her eyes for a moment and groans lightly. "Teenagers are such fucking jackasses, right?"

Dade shrugs but doesn't try and reassure her. 

The line is getting even more restless, but now Dade's manager is out of the storeroom and throwing him the look that says he has a lot of sink-cleaning in his immediate future, so he has to clear his throat and ask them what they want.

Kate orders plain black coffee and the guy she's with wants a latte without about eight different specifications, and Dade doesn't look up because he doesn't think he wants the tiny smile of solidarity Kate would throw him.

When he's finally taken their money and sent the guy off to wait for his latte, he pours Kate her coffee and hands it over.

"So we should have lunch or dinner or something, now we know we're back in the same place."

Dade doesn't want to agree, but... "Sure."

Kate smiles again and Dade is still very proud of himself for not smiling back.

"What's your email?"

Dade shrugged. "I'm sure you can find it."

Kate points at him and grins again before walking out the door.

He's fairly confident that's the last time he'll see her for at least another eight years.

\- - - - -

It's nearly three weeks later before she contacts him, and Dade had pretty much forgotten she'd even said she would.

 _from: katelibby@connectpro.com_  
to: dmurphy@dmsolutions.net  
subject: I was expecting a challenge.

Dade.

You know, when you told me to find your email myself I was expecting to have to do a little more then just google you. Do you think I've gone soft?

Anyway, I've just wrapped my latest project and my next one doesn't start for a week or so. We should get together, have a conversation where there aren't 13 angry witnesses.

Let me know when suits you, I'm very flexible.

\- Kate

 

Dade leaves it to sit in his inbox while he goes to work. When he's done, he jogs for an hour, then plays Mario Kart and eats dinner, before finally sitting down at his computer to answer. 

He tries to resist googling her before he replies, but his resolve doesn't last very long. She's googled him anyway, so she knows exactly what he's been doing - what he _hasn't_ been doing - for the last few years, and it's only fair if he has equal knowledge of her.

ConnectPro is a huge consulting firm that advises on what seems like everything. He can't find anything out from their website except that she works there, which her email had already told him. When he goes back further there's a gap in whatever records there are, and then he finds page after page of references to college.

He skips over almost everything - he doesn't need to read those to let him know that Kate's four years in MIT were more successful then his two-and-a-bit years in Stanford. He keeps clicking back until he hits on something he's familiar with, and then he freezes again. 

It's a newspaper article from senior year. In the picture, he's standing outside a police station in one of his awkward grimy sweaters, and Kate's standing three steps behind him, her arms folded across her chest. 

She still looks almost exactly the same. Her hair's all the one color now and she's missing some of her chunkier rings with the switch to business-casual, but aside from that she's barely aged between then and when he saw her a few weeks ago.

He sighs and stares at the screen for another minute, before finally emailing her back.

 _from: dmurphy@dmsolutions.net_  
to: katelibby@connectpro.com  
RE: I was expecting a challenge.

the hardest puzzles to solve are the ones you assume are more difficult than they really are.

My hours are kind of irregular at the moment, but I'm sure I can find some time, if you're as flexible as you say.

do you have anywhere in mind to meet up? I'm pretty east.

\- dade.

 

He logs off before he can start refreshing his inbox

\- - - - -

There's an email waiting for him when he wakes up, and he wrestles with going to work first for a few minutes before opening it.

 _from: katelibby@connectpro.com_  
to: dmurphy@dmsolutions.net  
RE: I was expecting more of a challenge.

Should have expected it I guess.

I've been meaning to try Davienda's, if that sounds good? Just pick a night and I'll book a table.

Good to see you

-Kate

 

He doesn't need to google Davienda's to know how out of his price range it is, but that shouldn't be a problem, seeing as she knows where he works. If she didn't want to pick up the check she shouldn't have suggested it.

 

 _from: dmurphy@dmsolutions.net_  
to: katelibby@connectpro.com  
RE: I was expecting more of a challenge.

I'm off work at 7.30 on Thursday, if that's good for you?

-dade

 

He's not expecting a reply until that evening, but his inbox pings just as he's pulling his shoes on.

 

 _from: katelibby@connectpro.com_  
to: dmurphy@dmsolutions.net  
RE: I was expecting more of a challenge.

Sounds good. I'll pick you up from there.

-Kate.

 

He doesn't dwell on the fact that she can get a table at Davienda's on three days' notice. All he can really stand to think about is whether Jim's finally gotten the sink fixed or not.

\- - - - -

It's 7.45 on Thursday and Dade has almost given up on Kate when she walks in the door.

He doesn't even see her at first, he just sees his teenaged coworker stop what he's doing to stare over Dade's shoulder, and turns around.

Kate is... _Kate_.

The business-casual from last month is gone, and she's wearing leather pants, a tight tank-top, and an oversized man's tuxedo jacket.

“You good to go?”

He nods and gestures vaguely at the back of the store. “I just need to grab something,” and heads back into the store room.

Another one of the random teenagers is in there, peering out the window. “Who's that? Your girlfriend?”

Dade shakes his head. “My ex. High school.”

The kid reaches out to offer him a fist bump, but pulls his hand back when Dade stares at him.

“Sorry.”

“It's fine.”

He pulls his battered messenger bag over his head and takes a second to collect himself before heading back out.

Kate has a BMW parked outside, and that's the first thing that makes him raise an eyebrow.

"What happened to the plans for a Harley?"

She laughed. "I don't trust the drivers here not to mow me down. Hop in."

Dade is one of the five people in California who uses public transportation, because his car ran into some trouble last year and hasn't been able to run out of it. Kate's car has leather seats and a CD player, and when she turns it on it's playing some kind of slow trance he's never heard before.

It's not a long drive to the restaurant - Dade works in a still edgy-cool but rapidly gentrifying neighborhood - and they don't talk much. Kate keeps shooting him glances when they're stopped. He resists pulling his bag into his lap and folding himself over it like in middle school, and he has to remind himself that this is Kate. Kate who he's stayed up all night coding with and seen naked and met her mom for the most awkward family dinner ever.

When they step out of the car he notices that she's taller than him, the heels of her boots clicking as she leads him inside. 

He glances at the menu and picks something a third of the way down that doesn't have mushrooms in it, and nods through her asking if he wants wine, and the server recommending one.

There's a moment after the server's gone when they just look at each other for a moment, until Kate grins widely.

"This is so weird."

He smiles back. "I guess it is."

"So tell me about you, man, what are you up to?"

Dade shrugged. "You know about me, what are you doing?"

"Oh god," Kate ruffled her fingers through her hair. "I don't even know where to start, it's been so long."

"It has."

There's a moment of silence again, before Kate coughs and starts talking again.

"Since MIT, right? I mean, you did the comp sci thing, you get it."

Dade doesn't know, not really. He left Stanford early, because at the time he thought he had better options. So he just shrugs and lets her keep talking.

"I took some business classes for some gen eds, and one of the professors recommended me for some internships, and ConnectPro offered me a job when I graduated.” 

"So you're what, in finance?"

"A bit, yeah. Cyber security, mostly banks and investments, stuff like that."

Dade laughed. "So you're like The Plague."

Kate covered her eyes. "Only less evil. I hope."

"Is that what got you the job then? Telling them all about your glorious past as a hacker?"

"Kind of, yeah. Most of these guys don't care what you used to do, so long as you help them keep everyone else from doing it now."

"Must be nice."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Not everyone can get success screwing over their old friends."

"Dude, lets not go there. You know we can't go as fast as they can. They don’t give a fuck if I lock them out of one system, they like it.”

They stare at each other across the table for another moment, before Dade speaks.

“So why are you here, Kate?”

There's a sharpness in his tone that he recognises but didn't expect. She recognises it to, and he can see her fingers clench for just a moment before she answers.

"I wanted to see you."

"Bullshit," he snaps. "You could have found me before now if you wanted to." Dade stares across the table at her for a moment. "Is this a pity thing? Because I can leave."

"What? No. Dade, I..."

"Fuck, it is, isn't it." He drops his cutlery on his plate and shoves back a little from the chair.

"It's not a pity thing, calm down."

"Then what's going on?"

Kate took a sip of her wine and rested her elbows on the table to lean forward.

"The company I work for, they do a lot of venture capit-"

"I don't want money."

"It's not just that! They link up companies who have money and ideas with programmers who need-"

"I don't need a job."

"Dade..."

"I have a job, Kate."

"Dade, c'mon. An actual job."

"Yeah, no. We're not doing this. Thanks for dinner, I'll get myself home."

He shoves back from the table and gets out of the restaurant as fast as he can. It's not 'til he's on the sidewalk outside that he realises he's left his bag in her car and can't get into his apartment without it.

He's waiting by her car, hoping when she finally gets out she won't want to re-start the argument and he can just leave.

It only takes a minute or so before she appears, twirling her keys around a finger.

She stops in front of him and shakes her head.

"This is your problem. You don't ever like admitting that you can't do everything by yourself."

"I don't need-"

"You clearly do. How many projects have you been involved with have haven't gone anywhere? And it's not like you can't do it, you're _fucking brilliant_."

Dade wants to respond, but he's stuck on the details.

"Have you been _checking up_ on me?"

"Oh grow the fuck up. You told me to find your email, did you think I was just going to ignore everything else I found?"

"Well we can't all take the easy route."

Kate's eyes narrowed. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"At least I took some fucking risks. I didn't just wait around, doing what I was told until someone gave me a-"

Kate shoved him so hard his back hit the wall. 

"Fuck. You."

She turned sharply and stalked over to her car.

"Like I said, Dade. You never ask for help and it's always someone else's fault." 

She slammed the car door and peeled out of the parking lot, barely giving him enough chance to yell “Well fuck you too” after her.

**Author's Note:**

> So I realised 2/3 of the way through that maybe this was a little depressing for a yuletide fic, but by then I'd committed and it was too late to write another one. Hopefully it works for you!


End file.
